When it comes to globalizing your brand, the inevitability that you will have to hire employees from around the world to help your business meet its goals is strong. The challenge, however, is recruiting a staff capable of moving past the issues that distance present.

As your new employees overseas will be the ones responsible for making the first impression in the new region you are expanding to, the process of recruiting can become that much more difficult. The question is: how can you successfully expand your search to an international level, with minimal risk?

Networking & Social Media

As a small business, networking plays a key role in finding potential hires. Reaching out to business associates and employees (current and former) can serve as a way to connect with individuals who may be qualified enough to be a part of your team. If you’re lucky, they may even know contacts in foreign countries who can help you with your international recruiting efforts.

As far as social networking platforms go, LinkedIn will likely be your primary connection source. In addition to creating a keyword-rich professional profile to attract prospective employees, you have the ability to search for potential employees based on references from people you personally trust.

While Linkedin is likely the best networking tool an expanding business can utilize for its recruitment process, your social media efforts can’t stop there. If your business has social media pages, post open positions in your status updates. It’s a free way to get the word out and your posts can be seen and shared by anyone within your network. In many cases, word-of-mouth is still the best marketing method!

Staffing Agencies

Because they already have the connections you need and are knowledgeable of the idiosyncrasies of the region where you are looking to hire new employees, staffing agencies can be a great help with international recruitment. Some agencies often have greater experience in overseas staffing, so be sure to do your research.

Job Boards

Job boards, like Careerbuilder and Monster, have both national and international job listings. As with national staffing agencies, working with international job boards that deal with international recruitment will be beneficial because of their experience with hiring foreign employees.

Holding an international candidate search doesn’t have to be any more difficult than filling a position locally. But when you do eventually find the perfect candidate, be sure to understand the different laws and regulations of the country you are looking to hire from. Recognizing the array of online tools completely dedicated to the hiring process is an integral aspect to actually hiring someone. In the past, many a business would be deterred from hiring outside of their comfort zone because of distance. But the Internet has provided the world with an array of assets that make every day tasks an afterthought.

About the Author: Hilary Smith is an online writer who is experienced in the fields of business communications and globalization. Her blog, SmartVirtualPhoneNumber.com, also covers internet telephony, virtualization, and business marketing strategies.